A little disappointing from Massa, but to be fair, there wasn't a lot between the Ferrari, Lotus and Mclaren. I think Alonso was just incredible on the day while Massa was unable to be similarly impressive and got caught with cars similar in speed. He did well to keep Kimi behind him. Even if Kimi obviously lacked some straight-line speed, he still had to be pretty much mistake free and he was tough on that outlap to keep the position. He's definitely had a lot worse performances this year.

Agreed, it was not the greatest performance, but far from the disaster of the beginning of the year, also as you said, keeping Kimi so close behind without making any big mistake was good, and the out lap quite good, and smart (or lucky?) with the DRS.

Agreed, it was not the greatest performance, but far from the disaster of the beginning of the year, also as you said, keeping Kimi so close behind without making any big mistake was good, and the out lap quite good, and smart (or lucky?) with the DRS.

Felipe has had plenty worse weekends but keeping Kimi behind was no big issue with a car that much faster. Kimi could barely reach the same speed with DRS as Felipe without!!

Felipe has had plenty worse weekends but keeping Kimi behind was no big issue with a car that much faster. Kimi could barely reach the same speed with DRS as Felipe without!!

yes, Kimi with DRS looked at best 5KPH faster but, that Lotus was fast overall on the lap, and any small mistake by Massa could have allowed an attack, so I think it was good to keep the position, saving fuel, with Kimi many times less than 0.5s behind, for what? 30 laps or more.

Agreed, it was not the greatest performance, but far from the disaster of the beginning of the year...

It was exactly the same kind of performance, but now the field is much more spread out. No matter how bad he drove, he wouldn´t go backwards more than behind Räikkönen. Just add a couple of competitive Mercedes, Sauber, Williams and Grosjean and there you have early season Massa.

Anyway, kudos if he really had to deal with a WRONG fuel load, because that´s a big handicap. If it was just a light strategy, he still sucked badly. About updates, they´re not justification for the enormous gap.

Felipe Massa: “It was a very tough fight, from start to finish. After around 20 laps, I was told from the pitwall that I had to try and save fuel, so I ended up doing over half the race without being able to go flat out and I can assure you, it was definitely not easy, because Kimi was always very close to me. It wasn’t the result I wanted, but all the same, these are important points for the Constructors’ championship. The time lost in FP2 cost me dear, mainly because we were unable to optimise our package. The duel with Kimi after the pit stop? I managed to come out of pit lane in front, but then I let him through at Turn 3 because he was still very close and I wanted to have the DRS down the straight. I think he realised that, but by then it was too late and I had the advantage and managed to get by. Now we go to Abu Dhabi, which is something of a second home race for Ferrari, as we have the beautiful theme park there. Let’s hope we have some more updates on the car and can secure a better result than this sixth place.”

This is not the kind of mistake Ferrari does, they need to explain it, to save fuel in the last laps under some conditions it's ok, but 40 laps before the end?, maybe the had a problem with the fuel pump. Anyway he couldn't overtake Button, so he was going nowhere in this race.

And that's the problem with Felipe. He does some good races, there's some hype and some 'is faster than you'-jokes, he signs a contract and everybody is happy. But Fernando is always up there, not 4 races per year.

He spun to avoid Webber. You have to rewatch the crash. Webber was stupid to rejoin the track like that.

You´re really Felipe, aren´t you?

No, he spun taking too much curb by himself. Webber left more than enough room between him and that apex to put a Ferrari in there. Don´t try to sell it as Perez´s move all over again because it was not.

He spun to avoid Webber. But you are so biased against Massa.. Once again, when Massa is bad, i'm the first to say this, you have just to watch this thread.

I´m biased when Massa comes into play, says the guy with Massa in the name and avatar.

Massa had a car fully alongside on the outside, braked too late, slid wide -he wasn´t even going to make the corner!- and bumped him off the track, then spun all by himself with loads of room to do whatever. And you blame the other guy.

But no surprised, I already saw last race how you always admit when Massa does shit job.

It's not because YOU said that Massa does a shit job that it's the truth. I respect your opinion - not like you with your stupid condescending tone - but i respect even more Laffite opinion for exemple, an ex F1 driver who comment the race for TF1.

It's not because i have Massa for avatar, and my pseudo is " Massa " that i'm biased, or that he is my favorite driver in F1, so try again Sherlock.

That was not my point. He has no consistency. Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg retirements yet P7. Bad for the WCC. He could not even fight with Vettel because his fight with Webber. Bad for the WDC. I don¡t know which targets Massa had for this race, but I bet he did not get them.Drivers have some bad races during a F1 season. In his case, it seems that he has some good races in a F1 season and that's it.

I like him, and I think he is very good at giving stability to the team. I am sure Fernando and the team value his input about car set ups, but he really gets poor results too often...

That was not my point. He has no consistency. Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg retirements yet P7. Bad for the WCC. He could not even fight with Vettel because his fight with Webber. Bad for the WDC. I don¡t know which targets Massa had for this race, but I bet he did not get them.Drivers have some bad races during a F1 season. In his case, it seems that he has some good races in a F1 season and that's it.

I like him, and I think he is very good at giving stability to the team. I am sure Fernando and the team value his input about car set ups, but he really gets poor results too often...

Flippy blamed Mark for the spin - in all honesty he probably was right when he said that he could not avoid the spin - pretty much any other driver OTOH could have...

Massa had a car fully alongside on the outside, braked too late, slid wide -he wasn´t even going to make the corner!- and bumped him off the track, then spun all by himself with loads of room to do whatever. And you blame the other guy.

But no surprised, I already saw last race how you always admit when Massa does shit job.

He spun to avoid Webber. You have to rewatch the crash. Webber was stupid to rejoin the track like that.

Crap.

Massa ran Webber off the track in the first place, Webber was rejoining the track and (in my opinion) likely would have ceded position to Massa, but Massa did a Massa and spun all by himself on the next apex. From there, there's not a lot Webber could do aside from race on and see what the Stewards had to say.

Webber didn't interfere with Massa when he came back onto the track. Distracted, possibly. But it showed up Felipe as being weak of mind if that's the case.

Massa ran Webber off the track in the first place, Webber was rejoining the track and (in my opinion) likely would have ceded position to Massa, but Massa did a Massa and spun all by himself on the next apex. From there, there's not a lot Webber could do aside from race on and see what the Stewards had to say.

Webber didn't interfere with Massa when he came back onto the track. Distracted, possibly. But it showed up Felipe as being weak of mind if that's the case.

You've gotta understand the corner a bit. You come off the highest curb on the track and try and get the power down quickly before the braking zone for the next left-hander. Massa's problem was that he was trying to put down the power, but instead of being able to keep the steering somewhat straight and go towards the right side of the track, he had to allow for Webber zooming back on track and thus had to take a tighter line. This meant a more 'left' steering angle, which after coming off the high curb, meant an unstable car.

Its Massa's fault when it comes down to it, cuz it was up to him to judge the situation, but it was a very easy mistake to make and he certainly did make it because of trying to avoid Webber. Its not as black and white as some of y'all are trying to paint it.

Skinnyguy and his Massa hate will be the next in line for the same crowbar that victimized Baumgarten six years ago... year in, year out many criticize Massa but as a Fenix he reborn from the ashes, signs a contract, earn millions of dollars to have the profession we would die for... be aware that envy is a sin and it may hurt you in your way up...

I couldn´t care less about how Massa does. I´m just stating the obvious: 1)He´s the shadow of the driver he once was 2)he hasn´t done enough to stay in Ferrari, and 3)he´s blaming others for his mistakes. If it hurts your fanboy mind I can´t do anything. Go learn something about other forum users that have no problem admitting when their driver is doing a poor job instead of calling haters the one stating the obvious.

You've gotta understand the corner a bit. You come off the highest curb on the track and try and get the power down quickly before the braking zone for the next left-hander. Massa's problem was that he was trying to put down the power, but instead of being able to keep the steering somewhat straight and go towards the right side of the track, he had to allow for Webber zooming back on track and thus had to take a tighter line. This meant a more 'left' steering angle, which after coming off the high curb, meant an unstable car.

Its Massa's fault when it comes down to it, cuz it was up to him to judge the situation, but it was a very easy mistake to make and he certainly did make it because of trying to avoid Webber. Its not as black and white as some of y'all are trying to paint it.

I agree. Mark was returning to the track after having left it and he should not interfere with other cars when retaking the track. Others should not have to take avoiding action. It is not merely a question of avoiding contact, there should be no interference at all with drivers on the racing line IMO.

I couldn´t care less about how Massa does. I´m just stating the obvious: 1)He´s the shadow of the driver he once was 2)he hasn´t done enough to stay in Ferrari, and 3)he´s blaming others for his mistakes. If it hurts your fanboy mind I can´t do anything. Go learn something about other forum users that have no problem admitting when their driver is doing a poor job instead of calling haters the one stating the obvious.